Why Is The Good Life?

When Siddhartha leaves and joins the Samanas we begin to understand the origin of where his suffering is coming from; which is all seen as the second noble truth. In his search for enlightenment Siddhartha hoped that by joining the samanas that he would be liberated from

At the beginning of the novel we see foreshadowing of Siddhartha’s constant tangle with conformity when it states “Govinda knew that he would not become an ordinary Brahmin… or just a stupid sheep amongst a large herd” (Hesse 4). This relates to the fact that Siddhartha doesn’t want to go through the motions of what the Brahmin’s are trying to teach. Rather he wants to find his self-fulfillment which he can only do by not conforming to ways that make him who he is not. The first instance of this is shown when Siddhartha confronts his father about leaving the house saying “With your permission, Father, I have come to tell you that I wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics.” (Hesse 10). At first his father rejects his son’s notion to leave, but after time has passed and Siddhartha remained where his father rejected him in

Sacrificed the truth, beauty and the right to think, happiness and comfort is just indulgent, it is the discomfort brought by the misery, responsibility and the bonding give us the weight of life. The world is full of people who try hard to gain happiness, and we all have at least one time the idea of living in a perfect world, a world without pain, without misery, without getting old and without cancers. We always ignored the importance and the beauty of uncomfortableness, just as a quote in this book said, “Stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand”. After read this book, I started to be more objective at those bad things I used to hate, to understand the significance of art and to be grateful to this imperfect world we are

Siddhartha is saying. that the practices of the samana are just a way of leaving life and its problems temporarily by making their bodies undergo these hardships. They eventually become numb with the pain and by doing so, the samana are able to leave their worries of the real world temporarily.

In the story of Antigone several characters made major and, definitive decisions based on their subjective morals and emotions. In almost every scenario a specific character was given the ultimatum of life or death. To the reader’s surprise, the characters chose death in order to remain consistent to their personal beliefs. I concluded that Sophocles intended for this element to convey that, people who are dogmatic in their beliefs often act solely on their emotions and are prone to make unintelligent decisions. This analysis will explore the morals of certain characters in Antigone, in an effort to determine whether remaining steadfast in those morals was worth their respective repercussions.

The concept of living “the good life” means something different for everyone. There is a general understanding that living “the good life” is associated with unyielding happiness and lasting satisfaction. The exact meaning of this desired life was pondered by thinkers and philosophers for hundreds of years. They constructed principals of behavior, thought, and obligation that would categorize a person as “good”. Although some of these ancient philosophies about “the good life” had overlapping ideas, their concepts varied widely. This contrast of ideas can be examined through two major characters in two famous works: Aeneas in “The Aeneid” and Socrates in “The Apology”. Aeneas exemplifies the philosophy that the direct route to “the good life" is through faith, trust in the Gods, and family, while Socrates in “The Apology” emphasizes free will, and vast knowledge of life.

        During this period-the realm of the mind, Siddhartha actively sets about letting the self die, escaping his Self. 

“The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.” - Mario Puzo. The play “Antigone” by Sophocles demonstrates the paramount significance of unconditional love and loyalty to family, including keeping one’s promises. It also implies the lesson of never taking the loved ones in our lives for granted. “Antigone” takes place in Ancient Greece, and is so well told that I felt as if I were experiencing this tale for myself in the city of Thebes. The tragedy focuses on a young girl named Antigone, who has heard the news of her two brothers killing one another in a battle for control of Thebes. Her younger sister, Ismene, however, is a fascinating individual who refuses to help her older sibling give one of

Siddhartha follows his journey through various changes in pace and mood, as he enters the samsara as a samana or one without possessions, he believes he can “think, wait, and fast”(64). Yet Siddhartha’s previous upbringing as a Brahmin and a samana, he refuses to accept the materialistic wealth “his heart was not in business”. (69) Yet his need to please Kamala, his love teacher, he needs to earn money therefore, by earning money he pleases Kamala “It (business) was useful in order to bring him money for

Siddhartha resolved that he would first go to the Samanas, ascetics that hard lives of self-denial of all comforts and pleasures in order to rid themselves of desire and those emotions that would hinder them on the journey to discovering Atman. Although joining these extremist monks was a high ambition, Siddhartha knew that he would succeed as a Samana, for he believed that the path of the ascetic would aid him on his journey of self-discovery. As his time with the Samanas lengthened, Siddhartha began to take pride in the knowledge that he was not blinded by the material world like everybody else was; he saw the world for what it truly was -- bitter lies and misery. Despite the fact that Siddhartha was becoming a great Samana, revered by even the older monks, he felt that what he had learned from them he could have learned on his own and in less time. Once again, he was not satisfied with the path that he was on and aspired to achieve even greater heights by parting from the Samanas. This ambition is plainly displayed when Siddhartha’s friend Govinda, who had become a Samana as well, proclaimed that Siddhartha would have learned to walk on water had he stayed with the ascetics. Siddhartha simply says that he would “let old

Siddhartha’s life was more of a journey, a journey filled with whimsical decisions and many questions; Siddhartha simply did as he pleased. After living this capricious lifestyle, he noticed that he felt empty inside. He wondered why he felt this way for a long time and decided to leave his current life. He abandoned all possessions and left his father in a quest to seek peace with the shramanas. Soon the cycle of the nature of Siddhartha was formed. Siddhartha would seek something and pursue that something blindly and by abandoning his previous lifestyle. It was not until he was an old man did he finally reach peace through the guidance of a river. Siddhartha’s life had changed immensely numerous amounts of times by the time he was old, but the change he experienced was not necessarily caused by of outside influences. He experienced change, but every change originated inside of him; of what he wanted to follow next. Of course, this still required Siddhartha to change to his new surroundings in every instance he obeyed new lifestyle. When he followed the shramanas, he left everything he had previously known and owned. When he left for the city, he completely changed his demeanor and became rich. Once again, when he lived by the river, he abandoned all possessions and former values. I believe that Siddhartha

This quote from the book made me realize that this is the point in the book where he went from being a somewhat Samana to a complete human, because he didn't just forget his laws and what he came there for, but also he forgot his teaching. Siddhartha not only disrespected his teachers including his father, but he also made sure that he would no longer be able to go back to what he once was, the pure Samana who did not care about anything. This new Samana cares about everything, if he loses money, he is cheated, Kamaswami takes to him, everyone brings their complaints to him, almost everything. When the capture continues it is found out that Siddhartha did not break his vows and his value, but he also disrespected his religion because being a pure Brahman and born into a

In the departure phase of his journey, Siddhartha completely shuns both internal and external desires and lives a more than humble life. During Siddhartha’s conversation with his father about leaving home, Siddhartha’s father, “returned again after an hour and again after two hours, looked through the window and saw Siddhartha standing there in the moonlight, in the starlight, in the dark” (11). Hermann Hesse’s use of dark and light imagery, emphasizes Siddhartha’s stubbornness for his desire to go with the Samanas, whose religious ideals are severe self discipline and restraint of all indulgence; he is adamant about leaving home, as his father checked on him countlessly and Siddhartha stood there unwavering despite the many hours and change of daylight so he could earn his father’s blessing to live the lifestyle of an ascetic. Furthermore, Siddhartha travels to the Samanas with Govinda to destroy Self and the multitudinous amount of desire by quelling each desire and all together Self even though he knows it is a difficult goal to achieve, “Although Siddhartha fled from Self a thousand times, dwelt in nothing, dwelt in animal and stone, the return was inevitable” (16). The effect of Siddhartha’s multiple attempted destructions of Self as a consequence of living as a Samana are failure in his attempt to discover Nirvana. Moreover, Siddhartha travels with Govinda to the Buddha after leaving the

Moreover, Sophocles’ “Antigone” shows how freedom, life, and a normal everyday life was the cost of fighting for social justice and the common good. In attempt to give her brother Polyneices the appropriate burial, chaos erupts in the kingdom of Thebes. Antigone wanted to honor her brother and the gods by burying her brother even though it was against the wishes of King Creon. Antigone knew her punishment would be death, but she did not care. Antigone was willing to risk her life in order to do what she felt was right. In regards to freedom, Antigone’s arrest and exile were both costs of her fight for social justice and the common good. Antigone’s fight for the common good affected her life as well as the lives of those around her. Her fiancé Haimon tried to fight for a good life for himself and Antigone by going against his father’s word. In the end, Haimon took his life as a result of Antigone’s death and his mother Eurydike committed suicide as a result of Haimon’s death.

Upon the encounter with the Shramanas, Siddhartha adopted the goal of completely emptying himself in order to identify with the world around him. He engaged in a number of Feats of Strength: stood in the burning sun without water, stood in the freezing rain without an umbrella, and stood in a thorny bush. Siddhartha enjoyed losing himself, but he always found himself again. He grew increasingly discontent with the self-denial system of the Shramanas. Siddhartha’s dissatisfaction with the Shramanas was evident when he told Govinda that he could just as easily lose himself in prostitutes and drinking. The dialogue in which Siddhartha compared the effect of the self-denial system to that of being drunk in alcohol is metaphoric. The metaphor was